A Shot in the Dark

"It's the logistical equivalent of filming on the face of Everest in the dark," explains Wes Skiles, director of underwater photography for Journey to Amazing Caves, the first Imax movie to take the plunge. To record these images, Skiles and nine other divers spent more than 500 hours in a Pleistocene-era chamber system 30 feet beneath the Yucatán jungle. A hand-hewn wooden platform anchored above the throat of the cave served as a makeshift base camp. To illuminate the passageways within the 35-mile-long Sistema Ejido Jacinto Pat – some of which begin nearly a quarter-mile from the cavern's entrance – Skiles needed 12,000 watts of light and 1,500 feet of cable. "You don't realize the detail until you shine that much light in," says the 43-year-old filmmaker, who's made 3,000-plus subterranean dives."We've never seen these places before." The movie premieres in theaters this month; for more information, visit www.wesskiles.com.

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